May 3, 2021

The Mystery of the Hansom Cab: Gay Subtexts and Murder in Victorian Melbourne

 


The Mystery of a Hansom Cab:
"In Victorian Melbourne, two men get into a hansom cab, but only comes out."  Sounds interesting, a sort of "he walked around the horses" mysterious disappearance.   

The Amazon Prime reviews keep saying a nice "Sunday afternoon" or "Tuesday night."  I've never heard movies described by days of the week before, so I suspect it's the same person trying to drum up some views.  Probably no gay characters, but a lot of gay subtexts.  

It is based on an 1886 novel by Fergus Hume (1859-1932), whose lawyer-turned-sleuth was one of the inspirations for Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet (1887).  The novel is a perennial bestseller in Australia, and has been adapted into several movies and radio plays.

Hume never married and was associated with the late 19th century "aesthete and decadent" crowd, so he was probably gay.  But did he include any gay subtexts in his novel, and did they translate into the 2012 movie version on Amazon Prime?

Turns out that this isn't a "mysterious disappearance" movie, it's one of the world's first whodunits.  In 1886 Melbourne, poet Oliver Whyte, who uses vocabulary like "cesspit" and "guttersnipe," gets into a cab, staggeringly drunk.  Another passenger, whom he recognizes, kills him and retrieves a letter before fleeing. Whodunit?


The affable, working-class detective Gorby (chubby bear Shane Jacobson, left) is assigned the case.  But when he arrests the wrong guy, the hard-driven detective Kilsap (Felix Williamson, below) takes over.  And family lawyer Duncan Carlton (Marco Chiappi) starts an investigation of his own.

The main suspect is Brian Fitzgerald (Oliver Ackland, top photo), a young Irishman engaged to the wealthy Madge Frettlby (Jessica DeGow).  Oliver was trying to steal her away so he could inherit the family fortune. 

Plus the landlady overheard him threatening to kill Oliver. 

Plus he has no alibi: he refuses to say where he was that night, because if he does, he will expose a secret "so explosive" that it will destroy all their lives.


But, as in all whodunits, everyone has a motive, and everyone has a lot of secrets.

1. Patriarch Mark Frettleby (John Waters, Cade Greenland as a young man).  Oliver was blackmailing him.

2. Buddy/boyfriend Roger Moreland (Charlie Cousins, left).  He was a co-conspirator in the plot, and incensed when it fell through.

3. Frettlby hanger-on, the obviously gay Felix Rolleston.  He was in love with Brian, and fiercely protective of him.

4. Madge, who has some explosive secrets of her own.

A prostitute named Sal Ralston and a dying woman called only The Queen turn out to be the keys to the various mysteries.  They are rather obvious to someone who's seen soap operas and read Agatha Christie -- nothing of gay interest -- but still, I was surprised several times.

By the way, the gay guy is not the murderer, for a change.


Beefcake: 
No.  Some cute guys, an occasional bulge.

Other Sights: Some nice recreations of 19th century Melbourne.

Gay Characters:  No doubt Felix.  There are both male and female prostitutes in the red light district.  

Gay Subtexts: Oliver and his friend Roger.  Madge and Sal Ralston seem to share some intimacy: "I think God meant for us to be together.  Won't you come along on our honeymoon?"

My Grade: A-

4 comments:

  1. This one sounds interesting

    ReplyDelete
  2. That top photo is Chandler Massey, not Oliver Ackland.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i believe that you are mistaken. This is from a "Man Crush Monday" spread devoted entirely to Oliver Ackland. But he and Chandler Massey look alike, so I can see the confusion.

      Delete
  3. It was a hansom cab, but was it a handsome cab? (& what about the driver...? ;p) sry could not resist the wordplay...

    ReplyDelete

No offensive, insulting, racist, or homophobic comments are permitted.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...